Avatar: Ship of Dreams
by TTAvatarfan
Summary: Many say Titanic was the ship of dreams. And it was. It really was." Kataang, Avatar/Titanic crossover
1. Chapter 1: Ghost Ship

A/N: I'm the biggest dork ever

**A/N: I'm the biggest dork ever! Yay! 8D Haha, yep, finally saw a movie everyone should see at least once in their life. Titanic. Yay me. xD Thought I should cross it over with Avatar. So here's how the character listing goes:**

**Rose DeWitt Bukater – Katara De laPonce**

**Jack Dawson- Aang Fernleigh**

**Ruth DeWitt Bukater – Kya De laPonce**

**Cal Hockley- Jet Tyrel**

**Molly Brown- Ursa Lillita**

**Fabrizio De Rossi- Kuzon Russili**

**Captain Smith- Iroh Moonscar**

**Mr. Andrews- Pakku Torcurra**

**Rose's granddaughter Lizzy- Amila **

**Brock Lovett- Zuko Pyrola**

**Tommy Ryan- Haru Summers**

**Lewis Bodine- Sokka Rathenburg**

**Spicer Lovejoy- Long Feng Ikilo**

**Mr. Ismay- the Mechanist**

**And yes, the story will be in italics until Katara's story aboard Titanic begins. **

**Disclaimer: Yeah…don't own Avatar…I'm too lazy to even say it. Oh, don't own Titanic either. I was only 5 when it was made. ;)**

_Everything was deathly quiet in the darkest part of the night on the ocean's surface. The wind blew only slightly, the waves lapping upon each other. Underneath the ocean however was quite a different story. _

_The quiet gloom of the ocean floor was broken by a bright, luminescent beam of light, and the soft thrumming of the engine of a deep diving underwater submersible. It moved slowly, sluggishly, taking it's time in the cold, pitch black waters._

_From inside the submarine, a young man looked outside the small, round windows that lined the thick walls. His golden eyes flicked back and forth, growing impatient as he waited for the lights to illuminate a sight he had seen only a few times before. _

_Suddenly, the beams struck a solid object, a ship. The ship glowed very eerily against the lights, appearing from the gloom almost like a ghost. The submersible glided over the prow smoothly, cutting through the water as if it were a hot knife through butter. _

"_And here we are again on the deck of Titanic," murmured the young man with golden eyes. "Like a ghost ship, it appears out of the darkness, still sitting on the same spot where it has laid for 84 years. Ever since the morning of April 14, 1912, where it hit the iceberg at 2:20 in the morning, and sank a couple hours later. It still carries a haunting presence every time I see it, like all the people who died on the ship are still connected to it."_

_Another young man snorted beside him, scoffing at his overdramatic speech. _

"_You are so full of shit, man," he said, shaking his head._

"_Says the guy who lived in his mom's basement for 20 years," his friend cocked a half smile, turning his gaze away from the window._

"_It's not like we haven't seen the wreck before, Zuko," the blue eyed young man raised an eyebrow._

"_At least have an open mind," Zuko flicked his eyes back to the tiny window, "Of course, you practically live in skepticism, Sokka."_

"_Every artist has his medium he works in," Sokka shrugged. _

"_Would you two shut up and focus?" the third member of their party growled, "This place is much too cramped for you to be wasting your breath and making it even hotter in here."_

_They glanced at each other, and their shoulders shook slightly as they laughed. _

_The mood soon grew somber and serious again, and Zuko turned his attention back to the windows. _

"_To think these windows are only nine inches thick," he breathed, "If they go, it's sionara in two microseconds."_

"_You over analyze too much," Sokka said distractedly, "Man the robot."_

"_Sounds good to me," their boss decided, "Time to get what we came for." _

"_Work your magic, oh master of mechanics," Zuko turned his eyes back up to his friend._

"_You're just jealous," Sokka sighed as he fit the SNOOP goggles over his eyes and gazed forward, grabbing the remote control handles._

"_Take her down slow," their boss ordered, his eyes intent as SNOOP began to settle on the deck, its churning motor pushing it through the doorway at a steady pace. _

"_Right there, keep going straight," Zuko said quietly, as if speaking any louder would disturb the delicate silence that had settled upon them. _

_Sokka moved a lever forward, his mouth a thin, concentrated line. _

_Everyone watched the small camera on the inside of the submarine that was connected to the outside of the SNOOP, hoping they would find what they were looking for. _

"_Turn left here," he whispered again, deep in focus._

"_I see it, I see it," Sokka said, voice thinly veiled with irritation._

_The robot continued to move forward, before turning at the supposed location into what appeared a small bedroom._

"_Uh oh," the blue eyed boy joked with a grin, "Looks like someone left the water running."_

_Zuko snorted while their boss rolled his eyes._

_SNOOP moved a little bit forward, taking care not to brush the any of the walls and possibly collapse them. _

"_Hey wait a minute, what's that right there?" Zuko leaned forward, narrowing his eyes. _

"_You mean under the door?" Sokka asked, pushing a handle forward. The camera focused in slightly._

"_Yeah. Lift it up."_

"_You're smelling something, aren't ya?" he grinned. "Give me my arms."_

_He pushed both handles forward, and two mechanical arms folded out from underneath the robot. The pinchers at the end of arms opened, and grabbed the door gently._

"_Easy now," Zuko told him, noticing his boss come up to sit beside him at the end of his vision._

"_I got it," Sokka assured them, lifting up the door and flipping it off to the side._

_They sat in silence for a minute, simply observing what had been uncovered. It appeared to be a safe, rusted with age and chipped at the corners._

"_Oh baby, baby," Sokka's grin filled up his face, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"_

_Their boss whistled low, and Zuko allowed a rare, whisper of a smile to grace his features, unable to take his eyes off the monitor that held the scared safe on its screen._

"_It's payday boys," he said, barely able to contain his excitement._

_ooo_

_The next morning dawned quickly on the ocean's surface. Celebratory shouts of joy echoed across the large ship that served as the crew's temporary base, along with the sound of metal clanking against metal as the crane raised the safe from the ocean in a thick, orange net. It was lowered onto the deck slowly and carefully, before immediately being assaulted with a strong, metal chainsaw. The crew grew even more excited as the hot sparks began to fly from the safe's hinges._

"_Who's the man?" Sokka whooped as he caught Zuko up in a headlock. "Who is the man?"_

"_You're the man, Sokka," Zuko choked, his neck being squeezed too tightly._

"_Damn straight!" came the celebratory shout into the sky. He popped the cap off a bottle of beer, and the froth exploded from inside the bottle. Unable to help himself, Sokka waved the bottle around so that the froth seemed to cover everyone, who couldn't contain their screams of excitement. _

_The hinges clicked suddenly, indicating that the safe was open, and everyone quieted down. Zuko waved the worker that had cut it open aside, and kneeled down in front of it himself, surrounded by video cameras that would record this hopefully historic event._

_Reaching forward without hesitation, he gave an almighty tug, and pulled the rusty door away. A flood of dirty, bright brown water flowed out from it's inside, pooling onto the deck floor, but he paid it no heed. He was more concerned about what was inside the safe. Unable to wait any longer, Zuko placed a hand inside, and pulled out the first, solid object he saw._

_It appeared to be an old wad of soaking money, no use to him. He tossed it aside, and reached in again, pulling out another wad of money. Growing frustrated, but refusing to give up, he noticed something else sticking out in the dark shadows of the safe's interior, and pulled it out. It was a thin, brown book, and just as filthy and wet as the safe itself. Irritated, he placed it down onto the deck, and looked inside again. But, to his great disappointment, there was nothing else inside the safe._

_Murmurs of worry and apprehension began to rise from the crew as Zuko continued to stare at the safe disbelievingly. _

"_Sorry bud," Sokka offered an apology, "I guess it wasn't there this time."_

_There was another moment of silence as the young man with golden eyes stood up slowly, his head hung in anger. He then lifted his head, his eyes bearing into the cameras that surrounded him, feeling humiliated and frustrated._

"_Turn the camera off," he ordered, striding away purposefully, leaving the rest of the crew staring after him._

_ooo_

"_You okay?" Sokka asked once they were inside the ship's laboratory base not too much later._

"_I'm fine," Zuko assured him, hands shoved in his jean pockets, "I just thought we were finally gonna find the stupid thing this time."_

"_We will," his friend clapped a hand on his shoulder, "Still plenty of places unexplored in that ship. I'm sure there are tons of other safes down there."_

_At that moment, Zuko glanced up at the monitor in front of him, watching as the dirt was washed away from the thin book they had found inside the safe by one of the technicians. They had hoped to find something interesting inside it. After all, it was a part of history if it had been found in the Titanic._

_But he hadn't been expecting the image that was rapidly coming into view on the screen, the dirt still being cleaned away._

"_Hold on, let me see that," he said quickly to the technician, making his way hastily to her side. Sokka followed him._

_Looking into the square, plastic dish that held one of the pages of the book, he saw a picture coming into view, appearing as if had been drawn only the day before. A young woman, reclining nude on a couch with her long hair pillowing about her shoulders, stared intently up at him, her position alluring and suggestive. But that wasn't what caught Zuko's attention. It was the enormous, heart shaped necklace that lay precariously on her collarbone._

"_Get me the photo of the necklace," he said quickly to Sokka. His friend picked up on his thinly veiled urgency, and didn't complain as he raced to get what was asked of him._

_Sokka returned a few heartbeats later, the old photo in hand, and handed it to Zuko. Zuko in turn held it up to the picture of the young woman for comparison, and to his astonishment, noticed that the necklaces were the same._

"_The Heart of the Ocean," he concluded, "We found her."_

_ooo_

_The old, small television set played quietly, a soft hum in the otherwise tranquil little home. A middle age woman began putting down bowls for her hungry dogs as they jumped up her legs, eager to be fed their dinner. Her grandmother, a very old woman with still plenty of spark that betrayed her now frail body, ran her hands through some clay on a spinning wheel, shaping the beginnings of a vase, her mind drifting and vaguely listening to the news._

_Suddenly, one word registered in her ears, a word she hadn't heard spoken in many years on the news. It was enough to force her to shut off her spinning wheel, and pick up her cane that sat by her side, using it to lift herself and make her way slowly to the t.v. to hear it better. Her pale blue eyes stared at it intently, waiting for them to mention the word once more._

"_What is it Gran?" her granddaughter asked, noticing her grandmother's sudden interest in the news._

"_Turn that up dear," she asked, motioning towards the television._

_Her granddaughter did so, and the old woman strained her ears intently, listening._

"_Well, my team and made yet another voyage down to the wreck of Titanic," the young man with striking golden eyes on the news explained, "We didn't find exactly what we were looking for, but we did find a clue to help lead us there."_

_An instant later, the drawing of the young woman with the heart shaped necklace appeared on the screen._

"_This," he continued, "An 84 year old drawing found in the wreckage, drawn on the night of the sinking. Did it deserve to remain at the bottom of the sea forever? I think…"_

_The rest of his words were lost on the older woman, her mind suddenly reeling from surprise._

"_What is it?" her granddaughter asked, concerned._

"_I'll be goddamned," her Gran breathed, unable to believe the sight that met her eyes._

_ooo_

_The base was still buzzing with activity, the crew preparing another submersible to search the waters in the dead of night. Zuko kept his head lifted, watching them intently. This was his first assignment in directing these sophisticated machines, and he didn't want to mess it up._

_One of his colleagues suddenly came up to him, an enormous grin on his face._

"_Hey Pyrola!" he shouted over the noise of the crane that was lifting the submarine over the deck, "Come here! There's someone on the phone for you!"_

"_Kind of busy, submarines going in the water," Zuko waved him off, trying to concentrate._

"_Trust me, you want to take this call," his colleague pressed him._

_Shoulders slumping slightly, he reluctantly followed the excited man over to the long distance satellite._

"_Now you're going to want to speak up, she's kind of old!" he shouted again._

"_Great," Zuko huffed, picking up the phone, and then speaking into it, "This is Zuko Pyrola, Mrs…"_

"_Variden, Katara Variden," his colleague offered to him._

"_Mrs. Variden," he continued, wanting to end the conversation quickly so he could get back to his job._

"_I was just wondering if you had found the Heart of the Ocean yet Mr. Pyrola," came the elderly voice at the other end of the line._

_There was a moment of stunned silence, Zuko's eyes wide with shock, and he glanced over at his fellow crewmember._

"_I told you you'd want to take this call," he grinned._

"_Alright Katara, you have my attention," the surprised young man continued, finally regaining his voice, "Would you like to tell me who the woman in the picture is?"_

"_Oh yes," Katara laughed slightly, her eyes sparkling with delight, "The woman in the picture is me."_


	2. Chapter 2: Back to Titanic

A/N: Well, people seem to like it, so I shall continue

**A/N: Well, people seem to like it, so I shall continue! Yay! **

"_The woman's a goddamn lair!" Sokka shouted over the roar of the helicopter's propellers as it landed on the laboratory base. He and Zuko were going to meet Katara and her granddaughter, both arriving at that very moment._

"_She's probably just some crackpot looking for publicity!" he continued, "Katara De laPonce died on Titanic when she was seventeen. If she had survived, she'd be over a hundred by now."_

"_A hundred and one next month," Zuko corrected, still not bothering to look back at him._

"_Okay, so she's a very _**old**_ goddamn liar," Sokka stopped for a moment, spreading his arms for emphasis. His feet were soon clanging on the floor again as he raced to catch up._

"_Look, I ran some background on this woman. Her maiden name was Katara Fernleigh," he began to explain what he knew, still trying to change his friend's mind, "She married a few years later to some guy named Variden and punched out a couple of kids, studied to be an actress. An _**actress**_," he exaggerated, "There's your first clue, Sherlock."_

"_I don't have any other leads," Zuko flicked his eyes over his shoulder, "If she can tell us something, we may as well listen to her."_

_Sokka huffed in frustration, but didn't bother to argue any further. Once Zuko had his mind made up about something, it was impossible to change it. _

_They made their way to the landing base on the ship, where the helicopter still roared loudly, it's rapidly slowing blades kicking up a fierce wind. Zuko and Sokka stopped in front of the enormous pile of bags that was being laid out in front of them._

"_She doesn't exactly travel light, does she?" Sokka observed, crossing his arms._

_Zuko left his friend's side, walking purposefully over to the helicopter's ramp that was being lowered. An old woman was seated at the top in a wheelchair, a small dog wrapped in her long, green overcoat._

"_Mrs. Variden!" Zuko greeted her, still shouting over the noise of the propellers, "I'm Zuko Pyrola. Nice to meet you!"_

_She nodded at him briefly, before her granddaughter rolled her down the ramp and away to the room that had designated to them during their stay._

_ooo_

_The last of many old pictures was being placed on the dresser in Katara's room as Zuko and Sokka opened the door the check on them a while later._

"_I hope everything is to your liking?" Zuko asked politely. _

"_Oh yes, everything's lovely," Katara smiled up them, and then to her pictures. "Have to carry my pictures around with me."_

_Sokka held back a snort._

"_Have you met my granddaughter, Amila?" the older woman asked them, glancing down at her, "She takes care of me."_

_Amila allowed a small smile to cross her face as she looked up at the two young men. "We met out on the deck." She glanced up and Katara. "Remember Gran?"_

_Katara sighed and shook her head, unable to believe that she had forgotten such a thing already._

_Zuko leaned farther into the room, before asking, "Well, is there anything I can get you?" Anything you'd like?"_

_The old woman looked up at, a sparkle entering her eyes that made her seem several years younger, as she answered. "Yes. I would like to see my drawing."_

_ooo_

_Katara gazed down past the water into, the square, plastic cleaning dish once in the lab. Her own, young, familiar face stared back intently from the picture inside, yellowed with age. _

"_Are you sure this is you Gran?" Amila asked, leaning in to look as well._

"_It _**is**_ me, dear," her grandmother said, somewhat indignantly. Her voice became mischievous as she added, "Wasn't I a man-killer?" _

_Zuko laughed quietly, before saying, "Alright, let's get down to business, the real reason I asked you to come down here. In the 16__th__ century, old King Louis of France lost just about everything from the neck up. He had a blue diamond in his crown that was cut in half and then one half re-cut to form a heart in a necklace."_

"_The Heart of the Ocean, right?" Amila put in._

"_Yup. Now, a few weeks before Titanic went out on her maiden voyage, someone bought that necklace in a deal of absolute secrecy. Katara, do you have any idea who that might have been?"_

_Katara thought for a moment, before answering knowingly, "I should imagine someone named 'Tyrel.'"_

_Zuko nodded, growing excited. "That's right. Kinoa Tyrel lent his son Jet the money to buy that necklace for his fiancé." His voice became lower and more emphasized as he added, "You."_

"_It was a dreadful, heavy thing," she wrinkled her nose in disgust, "I only wore it that once."_

"_Well, the date on the drawing says 'April 14__th__, 1912,'" Sokka added as he rounded a corner, jumping in on their conversation. He glanced down at Amila, "So if your grandmother is who she says she is, she was wearing the necklace the night when Titanic went down."_

_A large smile filled Zuko's face and he leaned in closer to Katara as he added, "Which makes you my new best friend."_

_She regarded him very steadily, her face giving nothing away._

_ooo_

_In another part of the lab, Katara, Zuko and Amila were set up around a small monitor that Sokka stood behind, showing them a computerized model of how Titanic sunk._

"_Okay," he began, pointing out the computerized as it crashed into an iceberg, "So she hits on the right side here, the iceberg punching holes in her like Morse code."_

_He shook his hand rapidly to demonstrate the bumps being pounded into the ship. Katara shifted uneasily._

"_Starts filling up with water," the water level inside the ship on the screen began to rise rapidly until it went over the deck, "But it can't go any higher than E deck. So, she starts to sink, and her whole ass starts going up in the air."_

_Sokka's eyes were wide as he emphasized, "Now that's a big ass. We're talking several thousand tons here."_

_Half of the boat had risen into the air, before breaking into two parts._

"_The hull's not designed to deal with that pressure. So what does she do? She snaps."_

_The lower half of the boat sunk below the water's surface._

"_The other half of the boat just kind of bobs like a cork for a couple of minutes," Sokka continued, "Before it fills up with water as well, and sinks. Hits the bottom going thirty or so knots."_

_He made a noise that resembled something crashing as the computerized boat hit the ocean floor, before turning back to his audience with a large smile._

"_Pretty cool, huh?"_

_Katara seemed indifferent as she said slowly, "Thank you for that wonderful forensic analysis, Mr. Rathenburg. However, the actual experience was…somewhat different."_

_Zuko kneeled down beside her gently, before asking, "Would you share it with us?"_

_The old woman stared at him for an undefined amount of time, before looking up and noticing that several other people had joined them, obviously curious to hear what she had to say. Noticing some of the other monitors playing in the background, she stood up, and hobbled over to carefully, everyone watching her. She noticed the images flashing across the screen were images from the wreck of Titanic, and scrutinized the screen harder._

_An image of the worn, rusted gates of the grand hall of the ship suddenly appeared, and Katara found herself remembering what they had looked like in all their glory. She saw herself walking through the beautiful oaken doors, filled with polarized glass and iron rings, two butlers dressed in black tuxedos opening the doors to let her through._

_Snapping quickly back to the present, Katara felt her throat tightening and tears springing to her eyes. She buried her face in her hands with a distressed moan, turning to the side. Amila was immediately next to her, placing her hands on her shoulders._

"_I'm taking her to rest," she murmured to the others._

"_No," Katara said defiantly, though her voice was weak._

"_C'mon Gran…" Amila tried to convince her._

"_No!" came the stronger, firm reply. _

_Deciding that she meant in, her granddaughter simply led her back to the chair she had been sitting in previously, and allowed her to take a seat. The others gathered closer once Amila joined them, and Zuko switched on a tape recorder._

"_Tell us Katara," he said, his golden eyes locked onto her._

_The older woman shook her head slightly and closed her eyes in nostalgia. _

"_It's been 84 years…" she said quietly._

"_I know," Zuko's voice became thinly veiled with desperation, "But try to remember something, anything at all."_

_Katara raised her head sharply, her pale blue eyes reflecting surprise and irritation. _

"_Do you want to hear this story or not, Mr. Pyrola?" she asked, her tone a clear indication that he keep his mouth shut._

_Zuko smiled just slightly, delighted that he was going to hear what she had to say after all._

"_It's been 84 years," Katara began again, "And I can still smell the fresh paint." Her eyes obtained a faraway look in them as she began to sink into her memories. "The china had never been used. The sheets had never been slept in."_

_She smiled, and glanced upwards, as she recalled, "Many say Titanic was 'the ship of dreams.' And it was. It really was…"_

**A/N: And now the real story begins! Yay! **


End file.
